Analysis:
We determine in detail who needs and uses what information to complete what work, and how this information is produced. We also analyse the technologies which support your content life cycle processes.

Recommendations:
Our findings lead to recommendations which indicate what must be done to better mange your content.

Your approval of our audit report recommendations results in our creating for you a framework or “blueprint” of how you can reuse your information and how you want your internal and external customers to access and use it.

We test decisions early to avoid later rework by building a prototype which uses your content models and metadata, and the processes and tools you’ll require to manage your content. We work closely with your tools vendors to ensure their tools will support your content as specified.

You can use this detailed road map to implement more effective management of your content with or without our help. You may want us to help you get started, then call on us afterward only as you need us.

To keep your content management project on track we give you the reference materials and training your authors and information architects need to create content and adapt models and processes to continuously support your new content management strategy.

CRS achieved 30% savings (over traditional methods) supporting 26 versions of their main product software using single sourcing techniques.

CRS (now Thermo CRS) is a world leader in designing and manufacturing ultra high performance software and mover robotics to enhance productivity in the global life-sciences industry.

With many products sharing common features, CRS had the opportunity to single-source individual guides from a common pool of information. We provided training in the use of and the development of styles for Quadralay WebWorks Publisher, which enabled CRS technical writers to implement single-source authoring.

We helped the Dominion significantly improve their access to and control over their 5000-file IT information set.

The Dominion is one of Canada’s leading financial institutions; enterprise content management proved to be a good solution for them.

We analyzed their IT information and restructured it for use in a document management system (FileNet). We also edited all the text-based files (training and documentation) and redesigned them for optimum use. We then categorized all the remaining files for fast access based on user needs.

Enbridge’s IS group improved audience access to more than 60,000 information artifacts (documents) with our help.

Enbridge Consumers Gas (now Enbridge Inc.) is a leader in energy distribution services both in North America and internationally. We helped them decide that an enterprise content management system would be most useful to them.

We analyzed their documents, determined their audience information retrieval needs, and recommended the design and creation of an information repository to provide optimum access to information.

We recommended Lotus Notes and Domino.Doc for the repository because Enbridge was already a Lotus Notes shop. We developed a customized Lotus Notes interface that worked together with Domino.Doc for storage and retrieval of documents.

EntreVision increased internal efficiency and customer satisfaction with the Help, guidance and training we gave them.

A leading provider of multi-platform e-business solutions for industry leaders, Entrevision had a Lotus Notes/Domino-based product that enabled users to create a Web site using templates, graphical, and navigational elements.

We analyzed their information requirements, specified the required documents, created a Lotus Notes Help prototype, produced the system administration guide, and trained Entrevision personnel in the effective writing and design of online materials.

OMERS cut performance support materials development costs by 60% (saving approx. $300,000) by employing single sourcing.

The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), one of Canada's largest pension plans, was creating a new pension management system (using 800 screens and 5000 unique fields) and needed to develop user support materials. We determined that a single source strategy was the best way to develop context-sensitive Help, a Web-based user guide, and paper-based classroom materials.

OPSEU saved an estimated 36% (vs. traditional methods) by single sourcing performance support materials.

The Ontario Public Service Employee's Union (OPSEU) is one of Canada's largest unions. Its pension management arm, OPSEU Pension Trust, implemented a new pension management system that required a Web-based user guide, HTML-based Help, and Web-based training materials.

We created all three outputs plus a backup paper-based user guide from a single source.

We helped Domestic Banking make more than 90,000 pages of English and French policies and procedures more intuitively useful and easier to manage. Estimated productivity savings to date exceed $1 million.

We analyzed their information, authors, methodologies, and hardware and software, and recommended the best way to move materials onto an intranet. We also recommended they incorporate a content management system and develop single source materials. We then recommended an appropriate tool.

We next help develop dynamic, personalized documentation for nine different user profiles, provided through their portal to some 1000 branches. This process involved information analysis, information modeling, and integration with Vignette.

We enabled Scotiabank HR Systems to make much of their employee information accessible via an intranet to their 1000 branches.

We analyzed all the types of information they wanted Web-accessible, including employee and branch directories, policies & procedures, job postings, etc. and gave them the written guidance and information model they needed to build their Web site.

We helped Governance make a new Security Awareness Program available to some 55,000 personnel.

After we’d analyzed Security Governance’s information, authoring, hardware, and software requirements, we recommended appropriate tools and provided suggestions on what the materials to include. We also created a specification for the Security Awareness Training materials.

Web-based training developed from a single source saved Sears an estimated $50,000. in the first year of its implementation.

Sears Canada, a leading retailer and catalogue sales centre, implemented a new catalogue services system that allows users (primarily Call Centre employees) to process customer orders and handle inquiries online. Sears needed to provide training, as well as ongoing support, to system users.

We recommended and developed Web-based training as well as online Help. The training materials take users through the primary tasks they perform when using the system; the Help provides a task-based reference, as well as field descriptions to assist users once they've completed the training.

Two-for-one savings for 2600 users were gained through single sourcing.

Sears was implementing a new repair, parts, and maintenance system in their warehouses across Canada and knew some 2600 associates in 10 different user groups needed training on it.

We analyzed user requirements and determined that an online Help system, in conjunction with Web-based training, would best enable users to access information once the training was complete.

We then trained Sears developers in single source building of the needed training materials, which gave Sears both training and WinHelp for just 5% more money in total than either one would have cost using traditional information development methods.